War of the Worlds Time Rift
Background War of the Worlds was initially an arcade game. It was released by Cinematronics both for a black and white vector monitor in 1979 and for a color vector monitor in 1982. The game saw extremely limited production because it was not received well at the 1982 Amusement Machine Operators of America (AMOA) Show due to a perceived lack of difficulty and insufficient hardware to run it. Less than 10 units are believed to exist. The Vectrex version, War of the Worlds, is a port of the arcade original, although with several added features, such as two skill levels, an added pause/status screen and a mothership to contend with in addition to its use of a joystick rather than buttons to control movement. The game, in turn, had a special limited edition release called War of the Worlds Time Rift. Only 11 copies were produced in a purposely-limited production run for the collectors market. An additional game play feature in the Time Rift version gave players an invisibility feature which could be invoked by pressing controller button one. Gameplay The player controls a turret pod as Martian tripods advance with the only objective but to annihilate. Martian tripods attack with sweeping laser cannons while the player can either dodge or defend themselves using shields or their cloak. The player may fire upon the tripods but it requires four hits before they are destroyed. Between waves of tripods, the Mothership will descend and shoot an onslaught of shurikens. Only the shurikens may be destroyed, as the player's fire is not powerful enough to harm the Mothership. Variations Three-hundred units of WOTW standard edition were produced. The standard edition included the cartridge, an instruction booklet, and plastic storage case. It sold out in 2014. The War of the Worlds Time Rift variant was limited to 10 copies and included the aforementioned additional game play feature, a printed display box, and a stainless steel wristwatch engraved with the mothership and "2011" – the year War of the Worlds came to the Vectrex, 30 years after the original version hit the arcades. War of the Worlds Time Rift variant #000 was limited to 1 copy and was sold to Tony Holcomb. While it did not come with the watch or the display box (a plastic box was included instead,) it was the first copy to be produced and sold, a detail commemorated by an on-screen serial number of "000". Scoring * Destroy Tripod-20 points * Destroy Shuriken-10 points * Destroy all the Shurikens during the battle with the mothership to restore all droids and shields Controls Main Menu * Start game (Medium)–button one * Start game (Easy)-down with joystick/D-pad plus button one * Start game (Hard)-up with joystick/D-pad plus button one * Choose between easy or default levels–up or down or joystick or D-pad (during start of a new game only) * Start game (Easy)-down with joystick or D-pad plus button 1 In-game *Move droid left or right-left or right on joystick/D-pad *Cloak-button one *Status/pause–button two *Shield–button three *Fire–button four Links *Official site *See The Definitive Guide to Vectrex Collecting for more on the WOTW Time Rift variant. Time Rift game play This article was featured from November - December, 2016. Category:Games Category:Vectrex BOTSS